The protesters gathered at the Macedonia Baptist Church, located in a community that was once home to freed slaves. The demonstration was part of an ongoing battle to block a proposal to build a new parking garage on an existing parking lot that was built decades ago.

“We’ve been met with a lot of disrespect and disregard, but nevertheless we continue to go back and we continue to plead our case,” Marsha Coleman-Adebayo, leader of church’s social justice ministry, told the news outlet.

In the 1960s, developers built the original parking lot on most of the cemetery. Excavators discovered human remains at the site but continued with the project anyway, a local historian told the news outlet.

He added that there were reports at that time that bulldozers pushed the remains to the edge of the cemetery before constructing the parking lot.

Will we see you tomorrow at the Rally to Save Bethesda African Cemetery? Check out this Washington Post article… https://t.co/XYAOcdiI9d

Unfortunately, there’s nothing unusual about the situation in Bethesda. In other cities throughout the nation, governments continue to neglect historic African-American cemeteries, the Washington Post reported. In Bethesda, the protesters said they want to see a museum or memorial built on the site to honor those who are buried at the cemetery.